Ear Hair, What is it Good For?

Hear no ear hair

This morning, Ryan came into my room around 9 a.m. and woke me up. I’ve been sleeping in lately, trying to rest up from my bout with pneumonia.

Okay, even if I wasn’t sick, I’d sleep late on the weekends. But at least now I have a legitimate excuse.

Anyways, Ry came in to really get the iPad from my nightstand, but he also likes to say good morning and tell me to go back to sleep. Today, he decided to jump in bed and talk with me for a bit as I woke up.

I haven’t shaved in two days, so I’ve got a nice scratchy beard going. Ryan loves rubbing it and asking me a zillion questions about it.

“Does it hurt, daddy?”

“When I get big, I’ll grow hair too?”

“How fast does it grow? It’s so rough already!”

It’s pretty cute and a good excuse for not shaving. But today he noticed something different. Something he’s never noticed before. Yes, I’m talking about… ear hair.

It’s something no one wants to talk about. No one wants to admit exists. But it does.

Apparently, ear hair grows proportionally to your age. I never had an issue with it until a few years ago. I’ve got one of those small nose and ear hair trimmers that I use. So clearly, I’m not the only one with this issue, or they never would’ve made those trimmers, right?

Ear Hair Trimmer

Anyways, Ryan looks at my ear and goes, “You have hair in your ears! LOTS of it!”

Good morning to you too, buddy.

And then he asks me an odd question: “Can I touch it?”

Not one to stifle my kids’ curiosity, I thought for a second and then said, “Sure.”

He looked at my ears. Thought for a second. Then jumped back in sheer horror as he shrieked, “I’m too scared! I’m not going to touch it!” And then grabbed the iPad and rant out of my bedroom.

That experience left me with two thoughts.

First, I clearly need to trim my ear hairs.

Second, why the heck do we even have ear hair in the first place? Are we more susceptible to ear infections as we get older, hence the need for more ear hair to protect our ears? Do our ears get colder as we age? Do we no longer need to be attractive since we’re past our prime?

I fear I’ll never learn the answers to these questions, just as we’ll never know why men have nipples. And if you’ve made it this far in my post, I thank you. Clearly you’re either horrified (like watching a roadside accident) or you’re in the same boat as me.

I just had to share this one with you guys to see if anyone else is going through this wonderful transition in life. Thanks for lending me your ear.

What do you think ear hair is good for?

9 thoughts on “Ear Hair, What is it Good For?”

  1. Ear hair is there for the same reason nose hair is there. It acts as a filter to trap debris and bugs (yuck) that might otherwise find their way into you. Class dismissed..

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  2. I have no idea why we have ear hair, but as for why men have nipples, I read once that we all have a female body in the womb until the Y chromosome kicks in for males. That’s why our external genitalia are similar too.

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  3. HaHa! I think this is my favorite post you have written. I have kids myself, and they always have the strangest questions! I love it. I really liked how you started to think about the possibility of getting ear infections as you age and that may be the cause of ear hair. Of course I had to google it… did you know they thought ear hair was genetic and due to the Y (male) chromosome that is passed down? Well, you can reassure your son they found out this had no foundation. So even the scientific field (as far as my short google research went) has no idea what ear hair is for.

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  4. The ear hair helps drown out your wife’s nagging! Just kidding. Yeah, I don’t get it either, seems like I trim my ear and nose hair more often as I get older. One of these days its probably not going to bother me and I will just let it grow…hopefully not!
    As far as the nipples go it would just look odd without them, right?

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  5. Ha ha – this post gave me a good laugh because my hubby is experiencing this phenomenon. No idea why men lose head hair and gain ear/nose hair as they get older but would love to know!

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  6. Men develop ear hair for probably the same reason some women start growing mustaches and beards after they hit a certain age.

    As to why men have nipples? Call me sometime and I can tell you the reason better than I could figure out how to write it down.

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